The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport remains closed and investigators are waiting until a private jet that sits belly up after an accident that killed one and injured two others can be stabilized so they can begin examining the wreckage.

"We are focusing on securing the aircraft so it is stable for investigators to enter and retrieve" the cockpit recorder, Courtney Liedler, NTSB investigator in charge, said at a 3 p.m. news conference Monday.

The crash of the twin-engine Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger, a business jet, on Sunday killed co-pilot Sergio Carranza Brabata. Miguel Henriquez remains in critical condition and Moises Carranza is in serious condition at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction.

Emergency crews work near a passenger plane that crashed upon landing at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport in Aspen, Colo., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. (The Aspen Times | Leigh Vogel)

All three aboard were pilots and Mexican citizens, Burchetta said. Two were flying the plane and one was a passenger.

"The injuries were traumatic in nature, but they were not thermal," Alex Burchetta, director of operations for the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office said. "So the fire never reached inside the cabin as far as we can tell."

The airport will remain closed until the NTSB gives the go-ahead to clear the wreckage from the runway, according to a Pitkin County Sheriff's Office release. That could happen on Monday night or Tuesday morning, Liedler said.

Investigators are concerned about the volatility of fuel that remains aboard the plane and the aircraft's unstable position alongside a runway.

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A crane and front-end loaders are being used to stabilize the craft.

Representatives from General Electric and Bombardier, the aircraft maker, were expected in Aspen on Monday afternoon. They will provide information about the plane that could aid in it being safely removed from the runway, Aspen police spokeswoman Blair Weyer said.

About 3,000 travelers have been affected by the disaster.

United Airlines has issued a travel waiver for customers flying in and out of Aspen, as a result of the airport closure. This waiver will allow passengers to rebook their flights without a change fee.

Airlines are providing bus service to shuttle stranded passengers to Denver and Grand Junction.

The investigation will initially concentrate on the flight crew, and weather conditions, Liedler said.

The 22-seat jet crashed at 12:23 p.m. on Sunday after circling the airport multiple times.

Audio from the Aspen Tower frequency shows the plane was cleared to land about 12:10 p.m. but missed its approach, according to the Aviation Safety Network website.

Other flights also reported low-level wind shear, the website said.

Burchetta said the plane went off the right side of the runway, flipped over and burst into flames.

A photo taken at the scene on Sunday shows the plane resting on its side and what appears to be smoke rising from the fuselage.

At an earlier news conference Monday, Sheriff Joe DeSalvo said that after the accident, he saw one man walk away from the plane and "put himself on a stretcher."

Henriquez remained in critical condition on Monday, and Carranza was in serious condition, according to St. Mary's spokeswoman Kim Williams.

The twin-engine aircraft, began its flight Sunday morning in Toluca, Mexico, before landing in Tucson. It then made a 2-hour, 8-minute flight to Aspen from Tucson, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are conducting the investigation with Pitkin County Airport officials, and personnel from Bombardier and General Electric.

Investigations typically take between 12 and 18 months, said Liedler.

The aircraft is registered to the Bank of Utah in Salt Lake City. The bank has title to the plane as part of an arrangement in which it acts as trustee for a third party, Bank of Utah vice president Brett King said.

Weather conditions at the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service in Boulder, were breezy with west winds of 10 to 20 mph and gusts of around 30 mph. Temperatures ranged from zero to minus 10 degrees.

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